When Wang Chengen left the palace, he went straight out of the city, and when he entered the city, he went straight into the palace. His mind was full of negotiations, and he had almost no time to contact the outside world. Naturally, he could not immediately know the public's views on the armistice negotiations.
But that's okay. If he knows that the public portrays him as a villain who brings disaster to the country and the people, or even betrays the country and seeks glory, it will definitely affect his mentality in carrying out the negotiation task.
Even though the imperial court had drawn up the general framework and bottom line of the negotiations, it was actually just wishful thinking of Emperor Chongzhen and his ministers. It was still an extremely difficult goal for Wang Chengen to get Haihan to make concessions on specific conditions.
What's more, Chen Yixin also specifically limited the negotiation time. An extra day would result in an additional compensation of 200,000 taels of silver. Although this was a condition unilaterally proposed by Haihan, Wang Chengen did not dare to ignore it directly. Emperor Chongzhen's response was simple, asking Wang Chengen to persuade Chen Yixin to cancel this unreasonable restriction.
Wang Chengen wanted his boss to give him an idea, but he didn't expect his boss to kick the ball back to him. Then Chen Yixin is not a three-year-old child, but a big shot who commands the Haihan 5th Lu Division, the 6th Lu Division, and the Northern Fleet. How can he be someone who can be easily persuaded by words?
But Wang Chengen had no choice. The imperial edict was the imperial edict, and no matter how difficult it was, he had no choice but to carry it out.
Although it is only a temporary truce and not the end of the war, it is a rare rest period for both warring parties.
Since the news of peace talks spread in the capital, many people have begun to have other thoughts.
Since the Haihan Army entered Shuntian Prefecture, in order to prevent the people of the capital from being distracted and spies leaving the city to report information, the capital has implemented a confinement order. Except for a very small number of people who have been specially approved to transport supplies to and from the city every day, ordinary people They were unable to leave the city during the war.
Now that peace is being negotiated with Haihan, and the city's lockdown order has finally been relaxed, there are many people who want to leave the city quickly.
Some people want to take the opportunity to flee and leave the capital. After all, this truce is only temporary. No one can predict how long it will last. Maybe the two countries will start fighting again if they can't reach an agreement, and then they will be in a situation where they can't leave. situation.
There are also some people whose family property is outside the city. The city seems safe, but there is no place to stand. During this period of time, they have been living and dining in the city, and they have long wanted to go back to their homes. Although there is some chaos outside the city, it is better to go home than to live in the city without a meal every three days.
Of course, there are other people whose ideas are different from ordinary people. The Ming Dynasty is in a difficult situation now. Not to mention suppressing Haihan, it has now reached the point where it has to rely on humiliation in exchange for a chance of survival. In this case, we can only make plans early, and we cannot wait until the Ming Dynasty ship sinks completely before thinking of diving to survive.
Therefore, Chen Yixin has received a lot of incestuous invitations and gifts in recent days.
Logically speaking, people who can achieve this level should be powerful people with extraordinary backgrounds. They think they are valuable to Haihan, so they try to contact Chen Yixin. However, judging from the signatures on the invitations, most of these people are businessmen operating in various industries, or some well-known figures in the cultural world, and they do not seem to be in the government.
But how could Chen Yixin not see through this kind of deception?
After he handed these invitations to the Military Intelligence Bureau for sorting, he got another list - behind these businessmen and scholars, almost all of them were high-ranking officials of the imperial court and even relatives of the emperor.
This information may be true or false, and those who came to test may not really have the intention to seek refuge with Haihan, but it can at least show that the Ming Dynasty can no longer suppress the popular sentiment in the capital, and there are many people who want to jump ship as soon as possible to survive.
This may also be related to the fact that Haihan has retained a large number of local officials originally affiliated with the Ming Dynasty in the newly occupied areas in recent years. For example, in Hangzhou, which was designated as the capital by Haihan, many officials at the county level and even the state government were hired by Haihan. The Han Dynasty retained it. Moreover, two years ago, Zhu Zian and Zhu Ziwu, two descendants of King De, participated in Haihan's opening ceremony to obtain scholars, and then successfully entered official positions in Hangzhou and Jinzhou respectively. This can be regarded as a precedent for the emperor's relatives to join Haihan.
Since all the descendants of Prince De's family can work as officials in Haihan, it shows that Haihan has no prejudice against people from the Ming Dynasty of the Zhu family. There are many powerful people in the capital. As long as you make your choice early, you can probably get an official position in Haihan with the resources at hand or your personal influence.
Even if you can't escape from the Ming Dynasty, if you can arrange for your children, nephews, and descendants to go to Haihan and follow the example of the Zhu brothers and gain official status in Haihan, it is also a good way. In this process, if we can get sponsorship from a high-level official like Chen Yixin, we will avoid many detours.
Chen Yixin has no objection to the appointment of people from Ming Dynasty, as long as he proves his ability and value to himself. However, the negotiation with Mingting was a top priority at the moment. These exploratory visits were not from the rightful owner, and he did not have time to receive them. They were all handed over to the Military Intelligence Bureau for handling.
After the Military Intelligence Bureau discovers the objects with development value, it will make further contact as appropriate.
However, Chen Yixin also noticed that he may have misjudged Ming's ability to bear the armistice negotiations. The weight he specially added to exert pressure did not seem to have a particularly obvious effect on Wang Chengen.
Wang Chengen did not appear anxious because of the price increase of 200,000 taels of silver a day. He was still discussing the details of various conditions in a leisurely manner, as if the reason for the truce was not that Ming Dynasty surrendered, but that Haihan had to take the initiative because he could no longer fight. The agreement is the same.
Regarding Haihan's request for compensation, Wang Chengen even took the attitude of being a dead pig and not afraid of boiling water. Anyway, he didn't have the money, and Ming Dynasty could not pay the war compensation requested by Haihan.
As for the request to cede territory, Wang Chengen also faithfully implemented Chongzhen's instructions. The state capitals in the south could be negotiated, but the Yongping Prefecture and Hejian Prefecture in the north could never be used as a truce condition.
Wang Chengen even said that Ming Dynasty could consider replacing it with a southern state capital with a larger land area.
But he forgot one thing. Chen Yixin was not only a member of the Haihan Executive Committee, but also the highest official of the Haihan Northern Region. Yongping Prefecture and Hejian Prefecture are areas that can be directly included in the Northern Region. To him, their value is not comparable to that of southern state capitals.
Therefore, Chongzhen's plan to exchange the southern land for the northern land was simply not feasible for Chen Yixin. The differences between the two sides on this condition were so great that they could not be negotiated at all.
The two sides talked for another three days in Balizhuang, but made very little progress. There was almost no agreement on the terms of compensation that Ming Dynasty needed to pay.
The only consensus between the two sides is to continue to maintain the truce and resolve the current differences through negotiation and consultation.